157 signatories and 172 parties: the treaty register's entry for the Law of the Sea Convention

Background

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is filed in the Secretary-General's treaty register under Chapter XXI, Law of the Sea. The register records that it was concluded at Montego Bay on 10 December 1982, where it was opened for signature together with the Final Act of the conference that drew it up. That conference was the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, convened pursuant to General Assembly resolution 3067 (XXVIII) of 16 November 1973; it held eleven sessions between 1973 and 1982 in New York, Caracas and Geneva, with the final part of the eleventh session at Montego Bay. The Convention entered into force on 16 November 1994 in accordance with article 308(1), and was registered the same day under No. 31363. Its text is published in the United Nations Treaty Series, volume 1833, page 3. The register keeps signature and consent to be bound as separate columns, and the status line shows 157 signatories against 172 parties, because a State that did not sign within the signature period can still become a party by acceding.